Pyongyang film festival featuring British judge opens amid tensions in the region

The Pyongyang International Film Festival opened in the North Korean capital on Friday, with British director Matt Hulse serving on the jury that will present the local equivalent of the Palme D'Or of Cannes.

The eight-day festival is going ahead despite tensions in the region and one week after North Korea went ahead with its fifth underground nuclear test.

"We have a group of six people presently on our film festival tour and they will be attending the opening ceremony this evening and then the first film," he told The Telegraph.

"We have a number of other groups in the country at the moment and they will also be viewing some of the films when they have a chance," he said. "We are in internet contact will all our groups and they are telling us that everything is just as normal and as expected."

Working with the British Embassy in Pyongyang and Ealing Studios, Koryo Tours has previously arranged for Bend it Like Beckham, Mr Bean: The Ultimate Disaster and Bride and Prejudice to be screened in North Korea.

Hulse directed the 2013 documentary-drama Dummy Jim, as well as numerous documentaries and short films, and was invited to serve on the jury by the organisers of the 15th festival.

"The festival will promote exchange and cooperation among moviemen from various countries," Kim Jae-hyok, vice director of the Korean Film Export and Import Corporation told state-run media, adding that films from Russia, India, Germany, Switzerland and China would be among the more than 100 titles to be screened.

North Korean entries in the competition include Prosperous Pyongyang, Story About My Family and the animated title Two Boys Who Found An Answer.